Barton set to make his case to GOP leaders – Upton wants answers from Browner on Interior edits – Murkowski sees ACELA as ‘starting point’ – Markey must prove himself to Westerners

CLOSED-DOOR TALKS – Joe Barton will sit down today with GOP leadership to make his case for why he should be the next Energy and Commerce chairman, the Texas Republican told Morning Energy last night. “I have a lot of folks supporting me and I feel real good about things,” he said in the Capitol.

SOME KIND WORDS – Barton has made it clear that he thinks he is the best man for the job, but the current ranking member nonetheless had some nice words for the man widely seen as the odds-on favorite to beat him out for the post. “He’s a good friend of mine,” he said of Fred Upton, “and I believe if he were to be chairman he would do a good job.”

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He also denied last week’s POLITICO report that his office was behind the anonymous opposition research dump questioning whether Upton is conservative enough to run the E&C show. “I have not collated or compiled or disseminated any kind of record, even my own. I have seen some of these voting records but they came to me from outside groups.”

ENOUGH ALREADY – While Barton, Upton and a pair of other candidates are pushing to take over the powerful panel, at least one of their committee colleagues has had enough of all the drama. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) wants GOP leaders to put an end to the internal squabbling.

“I’m not trying to smooth things over,” he said last night. “I just think if there’s a decision that needs to be made, I think it needs to be made – the sooner the better. And let’s not fight amongst ourselves. That’s counterproductive. We’ve got way too much work to do this year and it’s going to be important that we all be able to work together.”

FROM THE SAME CLOTH – Burgess also said that the panel would operate mostly the same, regardless of whether the gavel goes to Barton or Upton (or Shimkus). “I think they're all great people. They've all got long and good records, solid records with the committee. … From a policy perspective, I don’t see a great deal of difference.”

Happy Tuesday and welcome to Morning Energy, where we’re always glad we’re not Redskins fans but are even more so this morning. Keep the e-mails coming to Josh Voorhees at jvoorhees@politico.com

ME EXCLUSIVE – Opponents of EPA’s air toxics rule for boilers are continuing their quest to prod the agency to overhaul its draft regulation. In a letter sent last week to EPA chief Lisa Jackson, groups including the American Chemistry Council and the American Forest & Paper Association warned that the rule could spur severe job losses and billions of dollars in unnecessary regulatory costs. According to EPA, every dollar spent complying with the rule would yield more than $5 in public health benefits. Letter: http://politi.co/aeo3Qt

FIRST LOOK #1 – Most states are lagging when it comes to rulemaking procedures that include setting environmental and public health standards, according to a new report out today from the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University’s School of Law. The study assigns each of the 50 states a letter grade according to how well their regulatory systems promote sound and rational decision-making. No state got an A and most were in the D range. Iowa ranked the highest with a B+. The worst: Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas all scored a D-. Report will be live later today at http://bit.ly/aOKVUJ

FIRST LOOK #2 – Dire warnings about the consequences of climate change can backfire if they’re presented too negatively, reducing the willingness of individuals to support action to combat global warming, according to new research from UC-Berkeley set to be released this afternoon. The authors posit that one possible reason for this is that the information threatens deeply held beliefs that the world is just, orderly and stable.

DEAR CAROL – Upton penned a letter to Carol Browner yesterday, asking her for info about the changes her office made to an Interior report on offshore drilling earlier this year. (POLITICO broke the IG story last week: http://politi.co/a8AmFJ)

“I would like to know what prompted any last-minute edits that were made by your staff … and whether these changes were made to bolster the case for the moratorium,” Upton wrote. The letter: http://politi.co/bMey8W

** A message from America’s Natural Gas Alliance: According to IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, clean-burning shale gas makes up just 20% of the U.S. natural gas supply. In the next 25 years, it will account for 50% of U.S. gas supply. http://bit.ly/bIkiTF **

SENATE STARTING POINT – Lisa Murkowski predicted yesterday that any energy action in the upper chamber will likely be based on the bipartisan package that cleared the ENR panel. “We can clearly start with the parameters or the outline we put forth in the last Congress. There’s so much good in that. You hate to think we lose that because we start up a new Congress now but that's kind of where we are in the process. I think that’s probably our starting point.”

WESTERN PROVING GROUND – Ed Markey will have to prove himself to Westerners if he becomes the top Democrat on the Natural Resources panel next year. “Whether he’s respected or not will depend on whether he tries to … recognize our point of view, which is very difficult for someone who lives on the East, where they don’t have public lands that dominate their lives,” said Utah Republican Rob Bishop.

SPEAKING OF NAT RESOURCES – ME asked likely-chairman-to-be Doc Hastings for his thoughts on moving jurisdiction over energy from E&C to his panel. “We have a portion of that because of the federal lands,” he said. “But listen, those things are … stories right now.” He declined to comment when asked if he would suggest the change to GOP leaders.

BRIGHT LIGHTS – Upton’s stance on eco-friendly light bulbs has sparked a controversy in his bid for the energy chairmanship. But it turns out he’s not the only one in the race who voted for the 2007 energy bill that phases out some incandescent bulbs in favor of eco-friendly alternatives. John Shimkus also voted for the bill. But the Illinois Republican isn’t dead set on the light bulb ban, according to his office. “The congressman supported passage of the bill based on its entirety, not just one specific provision that’s been pulled out,” said spokesman Steve Tomaszewski. “He would look at extending the availability of incandescent light bulbs.” http://politi.co/94nHuR

HEY, OVER HERE! – Cliff Stearns is reminding people that he’s in the E&C race, too. The Florida Republican told reporters yesterday that he’s talked to leadership about it and he’s “getting nothing but positive feedback.” If Barton doesn’t get a waiver, “then I’ll put my hat in the ring,” he said. Asked why he should get it over Upton, who has seniority, Stearns was quick to note that Upton only outranks him by one term. He also said that he would better embody the change he thinks many American voters want.

PREDICTIONS – Henry Waxman doesn’t think much will get done over the next two years on energy legislation (regardless of who picks up the gavel) because of the conservative Republicans who make up the rank-and-file base. “I hope to be disappointed,” he said yesterday. “But right now my expectations are that the Republican leadership will find it hard to reach compromises in the House because they have a lot of pretty hard-line Republicans in their ranks who didn't come here to compromise.”

And on the GOP battle royal for the gavel: “They'll decide it. Whoever the pick, I hope to work with on a professional basis to help our committee run as smoothly as possible. The chairman will set the agenda and I'll try to influence it. I will try to look for ways we can work together, and where we can't, we'll have to battle it out.”

‘ SELECT’ SILENCE – Jim Sensenbrenner isn’t dishing on the fate of the Select Committee. “No, no, no,” he said to ward off reporters when asked whether he had talked to leadership about keeping the Pelosi-created panel. He said he wouldn’t discuss the issue in the hallway. The Wisconsin Republican has said he’d like to keep the committee around next year to investigate Obama’s energy policies, but most believe the panel will be disbanded.

SPEAKING OF INVESTIGATIONS – Darrell Issa, the likely next chairman of the House Oversight panel, will leave climate science probes to his colleagues. “A lot of it will rightfully so fall to the Science Committee,” he said yesterday. “We’re not a committee of jurisdiction on the science of it. We’re about waste, fraud and abuse and organization and cost.” An investigation into the Climategate controversy surrounding e-mails stolen from a British university may still be on the table, he added. “Certainly that’s a question of whether our money was well spent and honestly spent, but again, the question of whether the science is right belongs to other committees.”

E&C OVERSIGHT – Burgess said he’d like to lead the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. “I've been fortunate enough to be ranking on oversight. Mr. Barton reached down on the dais and pulled me up there earlier in the year. And I hope to get to continue to serve in whatever capacity. Our oversight is going to occupy a lot of time in the next Congress because we've done none in this Congress.”

** A message from America’s Natural Gas Alliance: One solution for more abundant domestic energy is staring us in the face. Natural gas is the natural choice—now and in the future. We know we need to use cleaner, American energy. And, we have it. Today, the U.S. has more natural gas than Saudi Arabia has oil, giving us generations of this clean, domestic energy source. Natural gas supports 2.8 million American jobs, most states are now home to more than 10,000 natural gas jobs. As Congress and the Administration look for ways toward a cleaner tomorrow, the answer is right here: natural gas. Learn more at www.anga.us And, follow us on Twitter @angaus. **

About The Author

Darren Samuelsohn is a senior White House reporter with experience from across the POLITICO newsroom.

He’s been a contributor to POLITICO Magazine and The Agenda and worked as a senior policy reporter covering everything from cybersecurity to campaign technology, sequestration and military sexual assault. He’s also known for 12-plus years dominating the energy and environment beat.

Samuelsohn joined POLITICO in 2010 after a decade in Washington D.C. with E&E Publishing's Greenwire and Environment & Energy Daily. There, he covered domestic and international climate change politics and policy, major energy legislation and air pollution regulations. Before E&E, Samuelsohn was the outdoors, travel and entertainment reporter at The Olympian in Washington state.

Samuelsohn started his career as a sports reporter. He covered the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, as a stringer for The New York Times. And he won multiple national awards for his work as a football beat reporter at the Columbia Missourian.

Samuelsohn graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He grew up splitting his time between South Florida and Chicago and pledges allegiance to the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Cubs. He's a former golf caddy, taxi driver, English teacher in Japan, Baskin Robbins scooper and Chuck E. Cheese (yes, he danced in the rat costume). He also wrote a humor column for his high school newspaper, waging a three-year campaign for prom king — and winning.

About The Author

Josh Voorhees is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro and lead author of Morning Energy. Before joining POLITICO, he covered energy and transportation policy, politics and business for E&E Publishing’s Greenwire and E&E Daily. He is a graduate of Davidson College and got his start in journalism at the Aiken (S.C.) Standard, where he wrote about crime, business, the Savannah River nuclear site and, once, a Halloween costume contest for dogs.

He’s spent most of his life split between D.C., western New York, North Carolina and London, where he coached a middle-school rugby team despite being more than a little confused about the finer points of some of the rules.

About The Author

Robin Bravender (it rhymes with lavender) is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro. She was formerly a reporter at E&E Publishing, where she covered climate policy and the Environmental Protection Agency. She also worked at Reuters Television’s Latin America desk.

She’s a Michigan native and will proudly show you where she grew up on a map of her hand. When she’s not chasing lawmakers for POLITICO, Bravender can be found chasing Frisbees, playing board games or watching Detroit sports.